1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a beta-glucane enriched grain fiber and to a process for preparing a beta-glucane enriched, cellulose-containing alimentary fiber which is useful as food or as a raw material or additive in the food industry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Beta-glucane enriched fibers may be prepared in accordance with known processes by grinding the grain while dry and then screening the fiber material from the starch component. The thus obtained fiber material typically contains at most 15% beta-glucane along with a considerable amount of starch. Wet grinding processes have not previously been used except for processing wheat, which contains only very small amounts of beta-glucane (U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,861). These wet grinding processes are not currently being used for grains such as oats or barley because when the grain material becomes wet, enzymes which dissolve beta-glucane are activated and destroy the beta-glucane. In contrast, fiber preparations devoid of beta-glucane are prepared by wet methods. Many processes are known per se for the isolation of beta-glucane. They are characterized by dissolving the beta-glucane, for example, in alkaline conditions and reprecipitating the beta-glucane, for example, with alcohol or acetone. The greatest problem involved in these processes is the high viscosity of the beta-glucane solution even at very low concentrations of beta-glucane. In addition, the precipitation requires a large amount of solvent which has to be recovered and reconcentrated. These problems make such processes uneconomical.